Massachusetts teachers join national demand for better resources

Eli Sherman Wicked Local @Eli_Sherman

Monday

May 21, 2018 at 4:23 PMMay 21, 2018 at 5:43 PM

If you've noticed a pattern of your local teachers wearing red these days, it's no coincidence.

Massachusetts teachers throughout the state are wearing the color in solidarity, as fellow educators go on strike across the country, demanding higher wages and better funding for classrooms. On May 15, tens of thousands of North Carolina teachers called out of work, forcing school districts to close class for more than 1 million students.

Similar events have happened in Arizona, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

“They are (using) their collective power to fight for their students, and they are confident that they will win because they know that they are on the correct side of the issue,” said Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, based in Quincy.

But where many other states have suffered year-over-year declines in state funding, per-pupil expenditures and lower pay for teachers, Massachusetts -- on balance -- doesn't share such afflictions, according to data compiled by Wicked Local, the National Education Association and the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Indeed, the average Massachusetts teacher salary for fiscal 2016 totaled $76,442, which was 31 percent more than the $58,353 average salary for teachers across the country. Massachusetts taxpayers spent $5.3 billion on teachers' pay in 2016, representing a $1 billion increase compared to the previous decade.

And where the national movement calls for greater per-pupil expenditures, meaning the amount of money spent on each student, Massachusetts has seen that number grow each year since at least 2008, totaling $15,544 in fiscal 2016 compared to an estimated $11,943 nationwide.

Nonetheless, not all school budgets are created equal, and measuring by averages doesn't tell the full story of individual districts. By example, on the issue of pay, there's a wide gap between the 54 Carlisle educators, who earned on average $100,803 in fiscal 2016, and the 85 teachers at Somerset Berkley Regional School District, who earned on average $58,972.

And while the average salary of Massachusetts teachers grew 31.2 percent in the decade ending in 2016, about 10 school districts during that time failed to exceed a cumulative pay increase of 10 percent and about 45 districts failed to break 20 percent.

Classroom sizes, too, are somewhat challenging, as the total number of Massachusetts teachers from 2007 to 2016 fell 5.4 percent, or 3,952 people. Overall student enrollment, meanwhile, declined at a slower clip of 1.6 percent.

“I reject the narrative that we have nothing to complain about in Massachusetts,” Madeloni said. “Instead, I see a wealthy state that refuses to properly fund its public schools and colleges.”

The MTA argues overall state funding is falling short, and students are paying the price. The association, representing about 110,000 educators, is advocating for legislation that would increase state funding for public schools by more than $1 billion a year, if appropriated.

How to find an unaccounted $1 billion in the state's operating budget, however, is easier said than done.

“There's always room depending on your priorities. Is there a billion dollars lying around that's not been appropriated? No,” said Andrew C. Bagley, vice president for policy and research at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit policy analysis group based in Boston.

The legislation, which has passed the state Senate, is designed to improve a funding formula that has historically favored more-affluent, suburban municipalities over poorer, urban and rural areas, according to the MTA.

The bill also calls on government to use more accurate figures when calculating fast-rising health insurance costs. The latter falls in line with what other teachers are calling for across the country.

Although there are no imminent plans for statewide action, Madeloni isn't ruling anything out, saying local teachers and unions have already organized to try and push the discussion of teachers and school funding to the forefront of public debate.

“I do not discount any possibility that could occur given the passion educators have for creating the schools that they, their students and their communities deserve,” she said.

Eli Sherman is an in-depth and investigative reporter at Wicked Local and GateHouse Media. Email him at esherman@wickedlocal.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.